It’s always nice when the creators of a comic book are actually involved substantially in a movie. And John Wagner was, apparently, pretty heavily involved. To the point of watching rough cuts and giving notes, that the filmmakers actually listened to, from the sound of things.

Specifically, Wagner said:

“I went up to London yesterday to see the completed Dredd film. I’ve had reservations about certain aspects of it, and made them plain to the team at DNA. All but one of them – a little quibble at the beginning – have been addressed. And what a lot they’ve added. Music is on the button. SFX are excellent. Filming is impressive. I’ve not seen a modern 3-D movie before but I like it. I found myself reaching out trying to touch things that were dancing before my eyes. Karl is a great Dredd and Olivia gets Anderson completely. This is Dredd as it should be done – true to character, visceral, unrelentingly violent (but not off-puttingly so). It will open, I believe, sometime in September. No doubt you’ll let me know what you think when you’ve seen it, but this has my recommendation.”

Aw, John, you had us at “unrelentingly violent”. And what, exactly, is the quibble?

The quibble: The use of modern day vehicles in a futuristic setting. Given the budget constraints it is hard to see what they could do to avoid it. It’s no big deal, really. It’s over quickly and once you’re past that it’s full steam ahead into Dreddworld. If this film does well we can expect the budget on the next to increase, therefore more money for such SFX. And just consider, on a budget effectively less than a fifth of the Stallone piece they’ve managed to make a movie far more representative of the character and strip we all know and love.

Eh. If the remake of “Total Recall” can have lots of flying cars, yet still feature cars that stay on the ground and use tires (and look suspiciously like product placement), and if this is the only complaint the guy who created the character actually has, then we consider that a glowing endorsement.

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Neat!
The old Stallone nightmare is one of my fave movies to hate. Even Rob Schneider’s effing character was wondering what the fuck he was doing there like it was some kind of excuse.
But if Wagner is on board with the remake/reboot whatever, then I shall look on with continued interest.